Second Quarter Canadian Mint Silver Sales Jump 24%

Royal Canadian Mint Sold 8.4 Million Ounces of Silver in the Second Quarter

The Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) released its second quarter 2016 report this week. The RCM’s 2015 annual report showed that they sold a record 34.3 million ounces of silver last year. The RCM’s 2016 first quarter report showed silver sales of 10.6 million ounces of silver, an increase of 19.3% from the first quarter of 2015. The second quarter report showed silver sales of 8.6 million ounces an increase of 24% from the second quarter of 2015.

2nd Quarter Silver Sales

2015 was a record year for silver coin sales around the world. The United States Mint sold a record 47 million one ounce American Silver Eagle coins in 2015. It was the third year in a row that the U.S. Mint sold a record amount of American Silver Eagles. The Perth Mint set a silver sales record of 11.775 million ounces in 2015. The RCM also set a record for silver sales for the third year in a row by selling 34,300,000 ounces.

Silver sales in the second quarter of 2016 at the U.S., Perth and Canadian Mints were all up substantially from the second quarter of record year 2015.

In the first half of 2016, the RCM sold 19 million ounces of silver or 55% of 2015’s total silver sales.

Sales of silver at the RCM in the first quarter of 2016 were higher than then entire annual sales of each of 2004-2009 and more than half the amount of the entire annual sales of silver in 2010.

The chart below shows the first and second quarter Royal Canadian Mint silver sales in 2016 vs. annual sales since 2004.

Silver sales at the Royal Canadian Mint through the first half of 2016 were 19 million ounces.

Skyrocketing silver sales were explicitly noted by the Canadian Mint in its 2015 annual report …”many investors have shifted [from gold] to silver as the preferred investment over gold due to its affordability and the safety net provided by industrial demand”

The Royal Canadian Mint noted in its Q1 2016 report that “Sales of silver bullion have been driven for several quarters by demand that exceeds supply in North America and Europe.” While silver sales remained robust in the second quarter, gold sales also regained favor.

The ratio of silver sales to gold sales at the Canadian Mint was nearly 50 ounces to one in the first quarter of 2016. As the price of silver rose more than gold in the second quarter of 2016 and the gold silver ratio fell, so too did the ratio of silver to gold sales at the Canadian Mint. In the second quarter the ratio of silver sales to gold sales fell to 33 ounces to one.

The Royal Canadian Mint silver to gold sales ratio in 2015 was 36 to 1.

The Price of Silver in 2015/16

The low price of silver in 2015 helped drive sales as well as a rising gold silver ratio that reached nearly 80 to 1 during the year. The price of silver declined steadily through 2015 since reaching an all time high of about $50 an ounce in April 2011. The declining price led to corresponding increasing sales in each of the past three years at the Royal Canadian Mint. The price of silver rose nearly 40% in the first half of 2016 as silver coin sales continued to increase.

The Canadian Silver Maple Leaf Coin

The bulk of silver sold by the Royal Canadian Mint is in the form of one ounce Canadian Silver Maple Leaf coins. The obverse of a Canadian Silver Maple leaf coin features a portrait of the Queen of England and the inscriptions “Elizabeth” and “5 Dollars”. The reverse of the Canadian Maple Leaf coin boasts an image of a single maple leaf and the inscriptions “CANADA” “Fine Silver 1 oz Argent Pur”. The Canadian Silver Maple Lead coin is 99.99% pure silver.

About the Canadian Mint

The Royal Canadian Mint is the national mint of Canada and it produces the general circulation coinage for the nation and for other foreign nations. The RCM also provides other services such as minting gold and silver bullion coins, as well as special edition collector’s edition coins and coin sets. The Canadian Mint also offers precious metals storage services for businesses, assay services to determine and ensure precious metal bullion weight and finess. The Canadian Mint has operated as a refinery since 1911.